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MEMAT 3.1 has been developed using a number of subsystems that interact with one another. Some of these are essential and others are optional. The outcome of this system architecture, however, is that the system is highly flexible and can be easily scaled to handle any size of operation, whether hosted by Africa Media Online or installed on servers within an organisation.
LAYERS
The most fundamental concept we have worked with in developing MEMAT 3 is the concept of layers. There are essentially three layers to the system:
Asset Management Layer: This is the heart of MEMAT 3. It is a highly sophisticated database system that can keep track of hundreds of thousands and even millions of files and tens of millions of lines of associated metadata and it can do this across distributed servers in multiple locations around the world or around your office. This layer includes sub-systems such as the MEMAT Digital Vault and the management of metadata schema. Most of this layer is unseen by users but is what makes MEMAT 3 a model system that conforms very closely to the requirements of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) the ISO standard for long-term digital preservation.
Presentation Layer: This is built on top of the Asset Management Layer and is the part of the system that you see and interact with. The Presentation Layer contains most of the functionality of the system that users interact with, for example lightboxes, accounts, search results, ecommerce purchasing pathway, various types of galleries and so on. This layer is constantly being improved and new functionality developed that is brought to market as new releases from time to time. MEMAT 3.1 is the latest release of the Presentation Layer. It is also the layer that integrates with other third party systems. For example MEMAT 3.1 has incorporated the Open Source SugarCRM as a customer relationship management module and it uses CoolIris to present gallery slide shows.
Design Layer: When you get a new MEMAT 3 site, this is the layer that is customised to fit with your branding and the look and feel that you want. This may be as simple as the top and bottom include (the design strips at the top and bottom of a MEMAT 3 site), or it may be more sophisticated such as having a unique splash page as the home page on your site or incorporating a blog or other custom pages. Really anything is possible here and MEMAT 3 interfaces well with popular Open Source content management systems (CMS) such as Joomla and WordPress. Because this is the customizable part of your MEMAT 3 site, this is the part you pay a designer for and the size of that fee will depend on what you want. The Design Layer also means that if you have an existing web site with an existing look and feel, your MEMAT site can easily be customized to integrate seamlessly with it.
SUB-SYSTEMS
MEMAT 3.1 has also been developed with the concept of sub-systems in mind. These sub-systems are stand alone elements that interact with other sub-systems within the total system and may be integral to any one of the three layers explained above. Here are a number of the more prominent sub-systems that make up MEMAT 3.
MEMAT Digital Vault: The Digital Vault is the where the Digital Masters of all the digital assets reside. Once a master file is ingested into the Vault it can never be changed. This is vital for ensuring authenticity. The Digital Vault can also track multiple versions of the same file and a later version can supercede an earlier one. Within the Vault, media is kept in units called “Security Boxes” or “boxes” for short. Each box has the same capacity as the in vogue optical media when it was created. Currently, boxes will hold 4.3GB to match a single layer DVD+R. It’s likely that this will jump to 25GB once writable Blu-Ray becomes economical. The storage that backs the Vault is in several forms and locations to avoid any possible failures.
MEMAT Optical Backup Server: The Optical Backup Server ensure backup of the contents of the Digital Vault to write once media ensuring a safeguard against a number of threats associated with rewritable media such as viruses and sabotage.
MEMAT Metadata Manager: The Metadata Manager was developed with real world metadata management in mind. Most media collections are not perfect and there may be multiple overlapping metadata schema in operation in a single collection, let alone multiple collections. The Metadata Manager is able to work with multiple schemas, map related fields across schemas and even attribute priority to certain schemas over others.
MEMAT Thesaurus Manager: The Thesaurus Manager has been built to manage a controlled vocabulary of terms. It has been used to manage the multilingual African Archival Thesaurus (AAT). The AAT is based on the Australian Pictorial Thesaurus and has been Africanized by Africa Media Online and translated into the major trade languages of Africa.
MEMAT Web Interface: The Web Interface makes up most of the Presentation Layer and incorporates a decade of experience in user interface design in working with media files online.
MEMAT Application System: The Application System can be used to manage competitions where media files are submitted and judged, or applications to be accepted into a training programme or professional community.